New Chapters Breakfast
10:00 - 10:30
Reception Room
Join us to meet people starting Smol Emuni US chapters around the US!
Registration
10:30 - 11:00
Reception Room
Conference Schedule
Morning Plenary
Morning Plenary
11:00-12:45
Sanctuary
Welcome
Rabbi Roly Matalon, B’nai Jeshurun
Opening
Rachel Landsberg
Director of Programs, Smol Emuni US
Witnessing the Devastation of Gaza - סור מרע
Over the past two years, Israel has carried out widespread devastation and loss of life in Gaza, intensified violence in the West Bank, and seen deepening fear and trauma within Israel itself. The commandment סוּר מֵרָע—to turn away from evil —demands that we first confront reality honestly: to see suffering clearly, to name injustice, and to reckon with our own implication and responsibility.
Jack Khoury
Rabbi Mikhael Manekin
Efrat Reubinoff
Esther Sperber
Moderator: Prof. David Myers
Prayer for Peace
Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller
Lunch
12:45- 1:45
3rd floor gym
Conversation & Torah Circles
Conversation & Torah Circles
1:45-3:00
Immigration, ICE, and the Torah’s Call to Protect the Ger
Sanctuary
Rabbi Saul Berman, Rabbi Mike Moskowitz, Zoe Schonfeld, moderated by Noah Gottschalk
Immigration policy and enforcement are shaping lives and communities across the United States in urgent and often painful ways. What is our responsibility as observant Jews in this moment? This session brings together an immigration lawyer and two rabbinic activists to share stories from the field, reflections from past and present civil rights struggles, and Torah that calls us to protect the ger. Together, we will explore how the Jewish community can respond with moral clarity, courage, and concrete action.
Oscar Nominated Film Screening
Children No More
Frankel
Tirza Leibowitz, Dr. Michelle Friedman
Throughout 2025, participants in silent vigils on Tel Aviv’s streets held up photographs of children from among the at least 17,000 killed in Gaza. This session will be a screening and discussion of Children No More, which moves between demonstrators and passersby, capturing on camera moments of gratitude, perplexity, vitriol, and accusations of betrayal. Viewing this short, intense documentary together opens a conversation about empathy—how it is lost, whether it is enough on its own to demand action, along with other pressing questions.
Teach Your Children Well: Towards an Honest Israel Education Curriculum
Front Room
Limor Yaakov Safrai, Gershon Rozenberg, moderated by Arnold Franklin
Schools play a crucial role in shaping the ideas and values of future generations. In this session, which will bring together educators and students, we will explore how Israel and its history are presented in the curriculum of Jewish schools in both the US and Israel. We will consider what an honest and nuanced understanding of Israel might look like, and how schools can balance historical complexity with community values.
A Land for All: بلاد للجميع :ארץ לכלם One Homeland, Two States
Middle Room
Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller and Omar Dajani
Join Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller and Omar Dajani for a discussion of a Jewish/Palestinian partnership promoting Confederation as a vision for the future of Israel/Palestine. Learn about this peace initiative that is grounded in equality, dignity, and justice for both peoples and how you can get involved.
Zionism In Crisis: Is Teshuvah Possible?
4th floor
Rabbi Zachary Truboff
Join Rabbi Truboff for a shiur inspired by his forthcoming book Zionism in Crisis: Jewish Power and Moral Responsibility After October 7th. Together, we will discuss what happens when moral language is used to avoid responsibility rather than assume it.
God as Ger: A Theology of Strangers
Chapel
Dr. Rabbi Erin Leib Smokler
Anchored in Chasidic commentary, come explore how our tradition relates to gerim and even imagines a God who is one. What are the moral implications of this kind of radical theology?
Zionism and Nationalism in the Haredi Community
4th floor
Musya Herzog and Meyer Labin, moderated by Sruli Fruchter
Are Haredim doomed to follow the political far-right? Musya Herzog, who grew up in the Chabad-Lubavitch community, and Meyer Labin, a Hasidic writer and journalist, join Sruli Fruchter for a candid conversation about Israel, Zionism, and the changing political landscape within ultra-Orthodox communities — and what it might take to cultivate a more compassionate and pluralistic vision for the future.
Generative Heartbreak in the Teachings of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov
4th floor
Rabbi David Jaffe
This experiential session, based in the teachings of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, will explore how the heartbreak we feel at the current socio-political situation can be used to generate the ratzon/desire needed to power individual and collective action for change.
Break
3:00-3:30
Mincha
3:15-3:30
Middle Room - Mechitza
Chapel - Egal
Afternoon Plenary
3:30-5:30
Sanctuary
Opening
Rabbi Saul Berman
Musical Interlude
Yoni Kretzmer
The Commandment to Do Good -עשה טוב
If סוּר מֵרָע calls us to turn away from evil, עֲשֵׂה טוֹב commands us to move toward the good.
Dr. Eman Ansari
Rabbi Sharon Brous
Mickey Gitzin
MK Rabbi Gilad Kariv
Rabbi Zachary Truboff
Moderator: Dr. Rivka Press-Schwartz
Judaism does not assume moral perfection, rather it offers pathways for repair when we fall short: tikkun (repair), tochacha (loving rebuke), and teshuvah (return). These are not abstract ideals, but practical tools—for individuals, for communities, and for institutions to help us chart a path forward when harm has been done.
Many among us feel that our Jewish institutions, our leaders, our rabbis—and we ourselves—have failed to live up to our responsibilities as religious Jews guided by Torah values. This plenary asks what it means to act faithfully now. We will hear from religious, political and grassroots leaders who are doing inspiring work in these areas.
Closing Words
Esther Sperber